The Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council gave the home’s application for placement of the National Register of Historic Places unanimous support Friday afternoon in Springfield.

The recommendation now heads to Washington, where the federal keeper of the National Register will review the case. Members of the Laurent Foundation who attended the hearing in Springfield said they hope to receive the official and final word from Washington, D.C., in three or four months.

Historic designation will help protect and preserve the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home at 4646 Spring Brook Road, the famed architect’s only handicapped-accessible home, designed especially for Ken Laurent, a disabled World War II veteran. The foundation plans to turn the home into a museum, opening in April.

“Not only did they give us unanimous approval, but we were the only ones to get a big round of applause,” said John Cook, a longtime friend of Ken Laurent, who died in January, and Laurent’s wife, Phyllis. “They said it was the best-written application they had ever seen.”

Cook, who was the Laurents’ landscape architect since 1971, said the council expressed extreme interest in the foundation’s work, asking him several questions about the Laurents and their relationship with Wright.

“I sensed a real enthusiasm for this project,” Cook said. “They were especially interested in the close relationship that the Laurents had with Wright, and that the Laurents attended annual fellowship dinners at Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wis.”

Next up for the home, which the foundation bought at auction last year, is to annex the property into the city. Right now, part of the property is in unincorporated Winnebago County.

The home was hooked up with city water service a couple of weeks ago, Cook said.

“It took about a days’ work. The water pipe went under the house and into an equipment room,” Cook said. “Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t build basements in his home. He built equipment rooms for all of the utilities.”

The Rockford Area Association of Realtors is hosting a fundraiser at the home Aug. 25. The group is trying to help the foundation cover the cost of a new roof.